Olympia to construct $3.1m zircon plant

Herdsman-based mineral sands explorer Olympia Resources Ltd has announced plans to construct a $3.1 million zircon processing plant at the company's Banjarmasin project in Indonesia, following positive feasibility studies.

Situated on Kalimantan, the plant will be operated by Olympia's Indonesian subsidiary, PT Olympia Indonesia.

The plant is expected to produce 23,555 tpa of zircon, 1,570 tpa of rutile and 1,166 ounces per year of gold when producing at full capacity. The plant is expected to commence production in July 2007.

PT Olympia will set up a mining operation to feed its concentrate to the processing plant should it be successful in identifying an economic zircon resource.

The company plans to sell most of the zircon and rutile produced into China, having already secured supply agreements with two Chinese customers.

Jacmin Engineering Services Pty Ltd has carried out the plant engineering design and has estimated the capital cost at $3.1 million, including a 20 per cent contingency. Olympia is currently arranging finance for the Processing Plant and expects to finalise detailed engineering by the end of 2006.

The company had encountered community opposition to the development of its Keysbrook mineral sands mine earlier this year, due to community concerns.